Into the Darkness (Darkness #1)(28)

That is what had the Eastern Territory running—fleeing down the street and out of sight.

“What the hell caused that, Boss?” Charles asked with panting breath and bleeding arms, stepping up beside him as they watched grown males sprinting to their cars or down the street.

Stefan shook his head. “I would’ve said their mage, but it was his creations that were destroyed.” He shook his head again, putting his hands on his h*ps and surveying the landscape. Small fires lit the grass and small shrubs. Bodies lay strewn in ragged clumps, skin slick with blood. This had been a grizzly battle with a lot of power—Stefan was afraid to count their losses. He lost good men tonight, not to mention friends.

“They’re getting bold, now.” Stefan looked back out to the street where his best spell casters were trying to do damage control. This neighborhood was more oblivious than most, thanks to their constant spell working, but the magnitude of the fight would draw some notice, even with their thick charms. “We haven’t had an attack directly to our castle in…I don’t even remember a time.”

“Boss!” Jameson sprinted up, winded and bloody. But alive. “The human police are on their way. I’m trying to clear the house, but it might be best if we get Luke.”

Luke was the best they had with pheromones. He was subtle but effective, easily able to navigate even the most difficult human. Stefan wanted to pit him against Sasha and see if the male had some effect.

“Go to it,” Stefan said with a nod, thoughts sticking to the pesky human that seemed to follow him like a bad smell. Good smell, actually—it turned him on something fierce. It didn’t change the fact that she seemed to turn up wherever he was, staring at him, bringing others toward his hiding places, and needing constant pushing to make sure she stayed gone. Only to find out she wasn’t gone at all. It was almost laughable. And would have been, if it had been somebody else’s problem.

He longed to be rid of her. She had a strange effect on him; he was aware of her, always. If she was anywhere close, he could identify her whereabouts without thought. It were as if a cable connected them. He had no idea how to get rid of it, and now that they knew she could withstand their influence, and also had magic, things would only get more complicated.

He needed to figure out who he could pawn her off on.

He entered the house and groaned. The furniture was mostly in tatters, the walls coated with burn marks, and bodies littered the floor.

“How many have we lost?” Stefan asked Charles, trying not to let his head slip downward or his voice waver. He couldn’t allow the others to see his weakness. He would mourn the losses on his own time.

Charles shook his head in small movements. “They’re being rounded up. What should we do with the enemy?”

“Put ‘em on a tarp in the front. If the E.T. want to come back for them, so be it. We will not stoop to their caliber of disgusting.”

“Yes, Boss.”

“Fetch the humans. I want to get them out of my hair.”

“Yes, Boss.”

Stefan bent to a body, realized it wasn’t one of his, and then froze. Not ten minutes ago he’d reflected that he knew when that blasted human was near. At the moment, she wasn’t. Which meant, she took off.

With the enemy.

The building shook with his anger, swirls of power called up in his rage. He did not tolerate spies.

Chapter Thirteen

“Sasha? Are you okay? Sasha?”

I opened my bleary eyes to Jared’s worried face. I raised my head a fraction, then immediately lowered it again, my cheek resting against my soft down comforter. The squashy material didn’t help my pounding headache. I moaned.

“Sasha?”

“I’m alive, Jared, please stop yelling in my ear.”

“Okay, but do we need to go to the hospital? You don’t look good.”

Knowing that Jared was prone to over-reacting, I closed my eyes again. “Aspirin.”

“Yup, sure, you got it!”

I sat up slowly, my head swimming in dizzy circles, to receive a glass of water and two white pills. After swallowing those down, I steadied myself against the nightstand. I felt like I had a fever. My skin was oversensitive, my forehead slick with sweat, and my body shivering with cold. Every muscle ached to the bone, my hands shook, and my head pounded. I also might…

I barely made it to the toilet.

Hanging with my head half a foot from my dinner, I sprawled out, still shivering, waiting for the next wave of…

“Do you want me to hold your hair?”

I waved Jared away as I dry heaved. After I finished, another feeling washed over me.

“Get out, quick!” I screamed, needing to swap ends.

As Jared sprinted from the bathroom, not arguing with the next wave of bodily fluid to pay homage to the porcelain god, I started a marathon of moaning. I felt like I was dying.

And if I wasn’t dying, I wanted to.

“Sasha, we gotta get outta here!” Jared screamed through the door.

“I can’t go far without creating a very messy trail of bread crumbs…”

“He’s here! That big one! He’s here!”

Fear pierced my gut. It wasn’t the only thing. I definitely wasn’t moving. “Who? Which guy?”

“The one they are all scared of!”